Actor Ben Savage's campaign for Congress is the latest test of how much celebrity matters in American politics.
“What a celebrity brings to the table is name recognition. They bring the ability to generate enthusiasm. They bring the ability to fundraise,” said David Jackson, a political science professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio who has studied the impact of celebrity on politics. “However some of the downsides can include — given that we exist in a highly fragmented entertainment culture — some people can be celebrities within one group but virtually unknown among other people.
Other potential downsides include being viewed as lightweights by voters, political consultants say, or refusing to put in the work necessary to run a competitive campaign, convinced that their celebrity is enough to win. Savage argues that his life experiences — working as an actor since he was in elementary school, studying political science at Stanford, briefly interning on Capitol Hill and living for many years in California’s 30District, which includes Burbank, Glendale and West Hollywood — have prepared him to be an effective member of Congress.
“I’ve been working union jobs my entire career. I’ve provided jobs for other people. I understood very early on what a hard day’s work was,” Savage said during an interview at a juice bar and vegetarian cafe in West Hollywood. “I’ve been on sets working my entire life, and I don’t go home and dive into a Scrooge McDuck gold palace.”, because of name identification and fundraising potential.
“There’s an advantage that you have to be careful not to squander,” said Rob Stutzman, a GOP strategist and longtime advisor to Schwarzenegger.who was widely known, “we had to do things to [quickly] convince people that this is a guy who is a big businessman who can do big things, not the guy you see on screen,” Stutzman said. “I think Savage’s fame is only a nominal advantage and can be quickly eclipsed if he’s not able to raise money on par with the other candidates.
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